Speaker dismisses preliminary objection raised by Majority Leader

Mr Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, on Wednesday dismissed the preliminary objection raised by Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader, to consider the privileges report as a statement.

He said: “Table Office should dismiss the motion and the House will continue to debate until my final ruling, I so rule.” 

On July 28,  Mr Osei- Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame raised a preliminary objection that the Privileges Committee report on the three absentee MPs should be considered as information and not a motion.  

Mr Bagbin on May 04 referred Madam Sarah Adwoa Safo, MP Dome-Kwabenya; Mr Henry Quartey, MP Ayawaso Central and Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP Assin Central to the Privileges Committee for absenting themselves from 15 sittings of the House without his permission during the First session of the Eighth Parliament. 

The committee failed to achieve a consensus in its recommendations on whether absenting herself for more than the mandatory 15 days without permission warranted her seat being declared vacant. 

However, before going into a recess in July, Mr Bagbin deferred his ruling on whether the Dome-Kwabenya seat should be declared vacant or not following Madam Safo’s failure to honour a meeting by the Privileges Committee on her continuous absence from Parliament. 

According to Mr Bagbin, although the motion was rightfully admitted, the report of the committee was sounded at the consideration of the House. 

To that end, Mr Bagbin has given clearance for a report from the Privileges Committee on three absentee MPs to be tabled and discussed on the floor of Parliament. 

The Majority Caucus in Parliament wants the seat declared vacant without delay in line with stated constitutional provisions. 

Most MPs on the committee cited Article 97 (1) (c) of the 1992 Constitution and the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare v the Attorney General & 3 Ors, in this regard. 

Meanwhile, the Minority MPs on the committee, however, argued that according to the principle of natural justice, the seat should not be declared vacant because Madam Safo did not provide her side of the issue to the committee. 

The committee, however, determined that the excuses from her two other colleagues, Mr Kennedy Agyepong and Mr Quartey, for absenting themselves were reasonable. 

It was conserved that Madam Safo failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities to explain her absence without leave. 

However, per the copy of the report made available to the Ghana News Agency by a source before recess, members of the committee gave a split decision on the fate of Madam Safo.

Source: GNA